Here's a link to the Boston Fire Department Historical Society's page dealing with non-fire disasters throughout BFD's service history. It has some interesting photos and pictorials, including a drawing of the Bussey Bridge Disaster and a diagram of the terrible 1916 Summer Street Bridge wreck which killed so many passengers and has been referred to as the "worst trolley accident in American history". I'm fairly well aquainted with the incidents on this page, so if you have any questions, I'll be happy to do my best to fake a good answer.

There is a book By Deputy Chief Paul Cook ready to Roll Ready to Die, stated that that the fire company he was responded to the out of control trolley that crashed into the Starters Booth,not sure if it was Dudley or Egelston Sta, trapping the Starter which caused him to loose both his legs. The station and its firefighters took up a collection for the family and it was a large sum .

StevieC48 wrote:There is a book By Deputy Chief Paul Cook ready to Roll Ready to Die, stated that that the fire company he was responded to the out of control trolley that crashed into the Starters Booth,not sure if it was Dudley or Egelston Sta, trapping the Starter which caused him to loose both his legs. The station and its firefighters took up a collection for the family and it was a large sum .

That was the Egelston St wreck on April 12, 1948 and I believe that it was the operator that lost his legs. The Cummings book "Street Cars of Boston Volume 4" has a writeup of the accident.

3rdrail wrote:Here's a link to the Boston Fire Department Historical Society's page dealing with non-fire disasters throughout BFD's service history. It has some interesting photos and pictorials, including a drawing of the Bussey Bridge Disaster and a diagram of the terrible 1916 Summer Street Bridge wreck which killed so many passengers and has been referred to as the "worst trolley accident in American history". I'm fairly well aquainted with the incidents on this page, so if you have any questions, I'll be happy to do my best to fake a good answer.

I can't help but notice that the theme of the page seems to involve transit. Besides these, you have the Molasses Disaster, The 1897 gas explosion, and the Beach Street Wreck on the el. Five out of six! The pictures of the el wreck are the best I have ever seen. It is obvious why 0934 was cut up on the scene, along with the lead car (a deck roof (I don't remember the number)). It looks like the third car took a pretty good pounding too, but stayed upright. It is interesting that the roof of the third car, at least 7 years old, is as shiny as 0934 (brand new). My how times have changed. Have you seen any reports from this one?

Gerry. STM/BSRA

The next stop is Washington. Change for Forest Hills Trains on the Winter St. Platform, and Everett Trains on the Summer St. Platform. This is an Ashmont train, change for Braintree at Columbia.

I haven't seen any official reports from the Beach Street wreck, however, I finally managed to get ahold of the 1887 Bussey Bridge Wreck which I have been looking for for years. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it presently, and I have some serious questions about it's cause - many which contradict it's historical cause of lore. I'd be curious what you made of one of the anomalies that I have found. It's on "What do you think ?" in the "Railroad Equipment" thread.

~Paul Joyce~[i]Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live SteamPaul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.

Regarding those shiny car tops - if you examine the picture carefully, you will note that many non-metal surfaces in the picture are also shiny, including parts of the street, and the walkway in the center on which a couple of observers are standing. I know nothing about maintenance practices of the BERy, but I'm pretty sure that the reason for the shiny car tops is simply that the photo was taken during or after a rainstorm.

You are 100 % correct, PBM. It actually was a torrential rainstorm. Here's an early photo taken of the wreck showing Boston Police Officers about to enter the teetering cars looking for victims during rescue/recovery work. Note their heavy rain gear. I believe that most of these El derailments can be written off to competing forces between cars as the cars were trained but had different motor set-ups and RPM's. An inefficient propulsion knocking off the center of balance resulted. It actually was a very similiar physical action as what was causing the PCC streetcars to overturn at crash scenes, in my most humble opinion (although each PCC with "rubber sandwich" wheels was doing it on their own).

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~Paul Joyce~[i]Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live SteamPaul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.

Your theory on this one makes some sense, especially if the light ends of the cars were facing away from each other. The lead car had to have jumped both the restraining rail, and the wooden safety "guard rail" to reach the point where it could fall between the tracks. This would have lifted the heavy end off its truck. 0934s heavy end would have stubbed, and then rode up on the lead car, causing the jackknife. By this time the emergency brakes would have brought the following two cars under control, resulting in lesser derailments. Since 0504 has a capacity of 13 tons close in, it wouldn't have been able to lift either car where they came to rest and swing them back onto the rails. Therefore the only option was to cut up the two cars on the spot. I am sure that the accountants had fifty fits when they were told to write off a brand new car and one less than 10 years old. Both look repairable, but there are no giant hands in real railroading.

Gerry. STM/BSRA

The next stop is Washington. Change for Forest Hills Trains on the Winter St. Platform, and Everett Trains on the Summer St. Platform. This is an Ashmont train, change for Braintree at Columbia.

For a considerable time, the El was mixing trucks between different model El Main Line cars. Different horsepower ratings, different center of mass, different trucks, etc. It was during this time that the El had it's infamous derailments not caused by excess speed, switch splits, motorman error, and usually on curves at accelerating or decelerating speeds. Off the top of my head, I can't recall either a original train set doing this or anything after the No. 10's. This is where forces not foreseen by the builders fought the cars in a linear direction as one car would fight another for superiority. One good reason to jump ship during the battle and over she went ! Note that Pullman got smart and produced a more integrated car, manufacturing the car and trucks (General Steel).

Gerry - If you don't mind, take a look at my "What Do You Think" post regarding the Bussey Bridge Wreck and tell me what you think. I'm trying to figure out how cars are ravenged and telescoped that have presumably made it accross a bridge that dropped, dropping their note-so-fortunate coupler mates to the rear.viewtopic.php?f=9&t=115007Unfortunately, I don't have any reports for Beach St.

~Paul Joyce~[i]Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live SteamPaul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.

Yes, it's definitely an 01400 and an early one at that in "Commonwealth" livery. I tend to think that the mistake in that it probably originated at Ashmont and not Quincy as at the time, 01400's didn't go to Quincy, that being the domain of the 015/01600's. It probably had just left Broadway Station under the Fort Point Channel when this happened. I wondered if these were the cars made into a work team at Cabot ?

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~Paul Joyce~[i]Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live SteamPaul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.